1.
Album
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Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves

2.
Perry Como
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Pierino Ronald Perry Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years after signing with the label in 1943, Mr. C. as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records for RCA and pioneered a musical variety television show. Como was seen weekly on television from 1949 to 1963, then continued hosting the Kraft Music Hall variety program monthly until 1967 and his television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world. Also a popular recording artist, Perry Como released numerous hit records from the 1940s through the 1970s, Comos appeal spanned generations and he was universally respected for both his professional standards and the conduct in his personal life. Como was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania and he was the seventh of ten children and the first American-born child of Pietro Como and Lucia Travaglini, who both emigrated to the US in 1910 from the Abruzzese town of Palena, Italy. He did not begin speaking English until he entered school, since the Comos spoke Italian at home. The family had a second-hand organ his father had bought for $3, as soon as Como was able to toddle, he would head to the instrument, pump the bellows, and play music he had heard by ear. Pietro, a hand and an amateur baritone, had all his children attend music lessons even if he could barely afford them. He showed more talent in his teenage years as a trombone player in the towns brass band, playing guitar, singing at weddings. Como was a member of the Canonsburg Italian Band along with the father of singer Bobby Vinton, bandleader Stan Vinton, young Como started helping his family at age 10, working before and after school in Steve Fragapanes barber shop for 50¢ a week. By age 13, he had graduated to having his own chair in the Fragapane barber shop and it was also around this time that young Como lost his weeks wages in a dice game. Filled with shame, he locked himself in his room and did not come out until hunger got the better of him and he managed to tell his father what had happened to the money his family depended on. His father told him he was entitled to make a mistake, when Perry was 14, his father became unable to work because of a severe heart condition. Como and his brothers became the support of the household, despite his musical ability, Comos primary ambition was to become the best barber in Canonsburg. Practicing on his father, young Como mastered the skills well enough to have his own shop at age 14. One of Comos regular customers at the shop owned a Greek coffee house that included a barber shop area. Como had so much work after moving to the coffee house and his customers worked mainly at the nearby steel mills. They were well-paid, did not mind spending money on themselves, Perry did especially well when one of his customers would marry

3.
Vocal
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The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary sound source. Generally speaking, the mechanism for generating the human voice can be subdivided into three parts, the lungs, the vocal folds within the larynx, and the articulators, the lung must produce adequate airflow and air pressure to vibrate vocal folds. The vocal folds are a vibrating valve that chops up the airflow from the lungs into audible pulses that form the sound source. The muscles of the larynx adjust the length and tension of the folds to ‘fine-tune’ pitch. The articulators articulate and filter the sound emanating from the larynx, the vocal folds, in combination with the articulators, are capable of producing highly intricate arrays of sound. The tone of voice may be modulated to suggest emotions such as anger, surprise, singers use the human voice as an instrument for creating music. Adult men and women typically have different sizes of vocal fold, adult male voices are usually lower-pitched and have larger folds. The male vocal folds, are between 17 mm and 25 mm in length, the female vocal folds are between 12.5 mm and 17.5 mm in length. The folds are within the larynx and they are attached at the back to the arytenoids cartilages, and at the front to the thyroid cartilage. They have no outer edge as they blend into the side of the tube while their inner edges or margins are free to vibrate. They have a three layer construction of an epithelium, vocal ligament, then muscle, which can shorten and they are flat triangular bands and are pearly white in color. Above both sides of the cord is the vestibular fold or false vocal cord, which has a small sac between its two folds. The difference in vocal folds size between men and women means that they have differently pitched voices, additionally, genetics also causes variances amongst the same sex, with mens and womens singing voices being categorized into types. For example, among men, there are bass, baritone, tenor and countertenor, there are additional categories for operatic voices, see voice type. This is not the source of difference between male and female voice. Men, generally speaking, have a vocal tract, which essentially gives the resultant voice a lower-sounding timbre. This is mostly independent of the folds themselves

4.
RCA Records
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RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. It is one of SMEs three flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records and Epic Records. The label has released multiple genres of music, including pop, rock, hip hop, R&B, blues, jazz, the companys name is derived from the initials of the labels former parent company, the Radio Corporation of America. It is the second oldest recording company in US history, after sister label Columbia Records, RCAs Canadian unit is Sonys oldest label in Canada. It was one of only two Canadian record companies to survive the Great Depression, kelly, Enrique Iglesias, Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, Kesha, Miley Cyrus, Giorgio Moroder, Jennifer Hudson, DAngelo, Pink, Tinashe, G-Eazy, Pitbull, Zayn and Wizkid. In 1929, the Radio Corporation of America purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the worlds largest manufacturer of phonographs and phonograph records. The company then became RCA Victor but retained use of the Victor Records name on their labels until the beginning of 1946 when the labels were finally switched over to RCA Victor. With Victor, RCA acquired New World rights to the famous Nipper His Masters Voice trademark, in Shanghai, China, in 1931, RCA Victors British affiliate the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form EMI. This gave RCA head David Sarnoff a seat on the EMI board, in September 1931, RCA Victor introduced the first 33⅓ rpm records sold to the public, calling them Program Transcriptions. In the depths of the Great Depression, the format was a commercial failure, during the early part of the depression, RCA made a number of attempts to produce a successful cheap label to compete with the dime store labels. The first was the short-lived Timely Tunes label in 1931 sold at Montgomery Ward, in 1932, Bluebird Records was created as a sub-label of RCA Victor. It was originally an 8-inch record with a blue label. In 1933, RCA reintroduced Bluebird and Electradisk as a standard 10-inch label, another cheap label, Sunrise, was produced. The same musical couplings were issued on all three labels and Bluebird Records still survives eight decades after Electradisk and Sunrise were discontinued, RCA also produced records for Montgomery Ward label during the 1930s. Besides manufacturing records for themselves, RCA Victor operated RCA Custom which was the leading record manufacturer for independent record labels, RCA Custom also pressed record compilations for The Readers Digest Association. RCA sold its interest in EMI in 1935, but EMI continued to distribute RCA recordings in the UK, RCA also manufactured and distributed HMV classical recordings on the RCA and HMV labels in North America. During World War II, ties between RCA and its Japanese affiliate JVC were severed, the Japanese record company is today called Victor Entertainment and is still a JVC subsidiary. From 1942 to 1944, RCA Victor was seriously impacted by the American Federation of Musicians recording ban, virtually all union musicians could not make recordings during that period

5.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu

6.
Richard Rodgers
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Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television and he is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His compositions have had a significant impact on popular music up to the present day and he has also won a Pulitzer Prize, making him one of two people to receive each award. Richard began playing the piano at age six,10, Townsend Harris Hall and DeWitt Clinton High School. Rodgers spent his teenage summers in Camp Wigwam where he composed some of his first songs. Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and later collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II all attended Columbia University, at Columbia, Rodgers joined the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. In 1921, Rodgers shifted his studies to the Institute of Musical Art, Rodgers was influenced by composers such as Victor Herbert and Jerome Kern, as well as by the operettas his parents took him to see on Broadway when he was a child. In 1919, Richard met Lorenz Hart, thanks to Phillip Leavitt, Rodgers and Hart struggled for years in the field of musical comedy, writing several amateur shows. They made their debut with the song Any Old Place With You. Their first professional production was the 1920 Poor Little Ritz Girl and their next professional show, The Melody Man, did not premiere until 1924. When he was just out of college Rodgers worked as director for Lew Fields. Among the stars he accompanied were Nora Bayes and Fred Allen, Rodgers was considering quitting show business altogether to sell childrens underwear, when he and Hart finally broke through in 1925. They wrote the songs for a show presented by the prestigious Theatre Guild, called The Garrick Gaieties. Only meant to run one day, the Guild knew they had a success, the shows biggest hit — the song that Rodgers believed made Rodgers and Hart — was Manhattan. The two were now a Broadway songwriting force, throughout the rest of the decade, the duo wrote several hit shows for both Broadway and London, including Dearest Enemy, The Girl Friend, Peggy-Ann, A Connecticut Yankee, and Present Arms. Their 1920s shows produced standards such as Here in My Arms, Mountain Greenery, Blue Room, My Heart Stood Still, with the Depression in full swing during the first half of the 1930s, the team sought greener pastures in Hollywood. Rodgers also wrote a melody for which Hart wrote three consecutive lyrics which either were cut, not recorded or not a hit, the fourth lyric resulted in one of their most famous songs, Blue Moon. In 1935, they returned to Broadway and wrote an almost unbroken string of hit shows that only with Harts death in 1943

7.
Lorenz Hart
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Lorenz Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Hart was born in Harlem, the elder of two sons, to Jewish immigrant parents, Max M. and Frieda Hart, of German background and his father, a business promoter, sent Hart and his brother to private schools. Hart received his education from Columbia Grammar School and then attended Columbia University School of Journalism for two years. A friend introduced him to Richard Rodgers, and the two joined forces to write songs for a series of amateur and student productions, by 1918, Hart was working for the Shubert brothers, partners in theatre, translating German plays into English. In 1919, his and Rodgers song Any Old Place With You was included in the Broadway musical comedy A Lonely Romeo, in 1920, six of their songs were used in the musical comedy Poor Little Ritz Girl, which also had music by Sigmund Romberg. They were hired to write the score for the 1925 Theatre Guild production The Garrick Gaieties, Rodgers and Hart subsequently wrote the music and lyrics for 26 Broadway musicals during a more-than-20-year partnership that ended shortly before Harts early death. Their big four were Babes in Arms, The Boys From Syracuse, Pal Joey, the Rodgers and Hart songs have been described as intimate and destined for long lives outside the theater. Many of their songs are standard repertoire for singers and jazz instrumentalists, notable singers who have performed and recorded their songs have included Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Blossom Dearie, and Carly Simon. Hart has been called the bard of the urban generation which matured during the interwar years. But the encomiums suggest that Larry Hart was a poet caused his friend, Larry in particular was primarily a showman. If you can manage to examine his songs technically, and for the moment elude their spell, you see that they are all meant to be acted. Rodgers and Hart wrote music and lyrics for films, including Love Me Tonight, The Phantom President, Hallelujah, Im a Bum. With their successes, during the Great Depression Hart was earning $60,000 annually, beginning in 1938, he traveled more often and suffered from his drinking. Nevertheless, Rodgers and Hart continued working together through mid-1942, with their new musical being 1942s By Jupiter. Rodgers then teamed with new partner Oscar Hammerstein II for the 1943 musical Oklahoma, Hart, meanwhile, was much affected by his mothers death in late April 1943. Regrouping somewhat, Rodgers and Hart teamed a final time in the fall of 1943 for a revival of A Connecticut Yankee, one new number, To Keep My Love Alive, was written for this reworked version of the play, it would prove to be Harts last lyric. Hart had taken off the night of the opening and was gone for two days and he was found ill in a hotel room and taken to the hospital, but died within a few days. After Harts death, Rodgers continued his collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II, theirs was a long and successful collaboration, one which made them one of the most successful composing teams of the 20th century

8.
Neil Diamond
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Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor. One of the worlds best-selling artists of all time, he has sold over 120 million records worldwide since the start of his career in the 1960s. With 38 songs in the Top 10, he is the second most successful artist in the history of the Billboard Adult Contemporary Top 10 charts and his songs have been covered internationally by many performers from a variety of musical genres. Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock, additionally, he received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and in 2011 was an honoree at Kennedy Center. On the Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts, he has had eleven No, Sweet Caroline is played frequently at sporting events, and has become an anthem for the Boston Red Sox. Diamond was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family descended from Russian and his parents were Rose and Akeeba Kieve Diamond, a dry-goods merchant. He grew up in homes in Brooklyn, having also spent four years in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In Brooklyn he attended Erasmus Hall High School and was a member of the Freshman Chorus and they were not close friends at the time, Diamond recalls, We were two poor kids in Brooklyn. We hung out in the front of Erasmus High and smoked cigarettes, after his family moved he then attended Abraham Lincoln High School, and was a member of the fencing team. For his 16th birthday, he received his first guitar, and the next thing, I got a guitar when we got back to Brooklyn, started to take lessons and almost immediately began to write songs, he said. He adds that his attraction to songwriting was the first real interest he had growing up, Diamond also used his newly-developing skill at writing lyrics to write poetry. By writing poems for girls he was attracted to in school and his male classmates took note and began asking him to write poems for them which they would sing and use with equal success. He spent the following his graduation as a waiter in the Catskills resort area. There he first met Jaye Posner, who would, years later, Diamond next attended New York University as a pre-med major on a fencing scholarship. His skill at fencing made him a member of the 1960 NCAA mens championship team, however, he was often bored in classes, and found writing song lyrics more to his liking. He began cutting classes and taking the train up to Tin Pan Alley where he tried to get some of his songs heard by music publishers. By his senior year, and just 10 units short of graduation, Sunbeam Music Publishing offered him a 16-week job writing songs for $50 a week, and he dropped out of college to accept it. After his 16 weeks at Sunbeam Music were up, he was not rehired, I never really chose songwriting, he says

9.
You Needed Me
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You Needed Me is a song written by Randy Goodrum, who describes it as being about unconditional undeserved love. It was a one hit single in the United States in 1978 for Canadian singer Anne Murray. In 1999, Irish pop band Boyzone recorded a hit cover of the song hit number one in the UK Singles Chart. You Needed Me was first recorded by singer Anne Murray in 1978, although the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, it never topped the two Billboard charts where Murray has had the most success -- Country and Adult Contemporary. However, it spent a then-record 36 weeks on the Adult Contemporary chart, the song earned Murray the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 21st Grammy Awards, the first to be awarded to a Canadian artist. Anne Murray re-recorded the song with Shania Twain for Murrays 2007 album Duets, the song was featured in an ongoing storyline on the CBS soap Guiding Light in 1980–81, as a theme song for the characters Kelly Nelson and Morgan Richards. In 2013, the song was performed by Seth MacFarlane in character as Stewie Griffin on the Family Guy episode Chris Cross and you Needed Me was covered by Irish boy band Boyzone in 1999. It was released as the single from their album By Request. Their single reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart, beating the debut single of Spice Girl Geri Halliwell. The song received a silver disc for shipping 200,000 copies in the UK, cD1 You Needed Me Words Cant Describe Megamix, Love to Infinity CD2 You Needed Me You Needed Me Too Late Tonight You Needed Me Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

10.
Irving Berlin
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Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history. His music forms a part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russia, Berlin arrived in the United States at the age of five. He published his first song, Marie from Sunny Italy, in 1907, receiving 33 cents for the publishing rights and he also was an owner of the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. Alexanders Ragtime Band sparked a dance craze in places as far away as Berlins native Russia. In doing so, said Walter Cronkite, at Berlins 100th birthday tribute, he helped write the story of country, capturing the best of who we are. He wrote hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits, which him a legend before he turned thirty. During his 60-year career he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs, including the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films, with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards. Many songs became popular themes and anthems, including Easter Parade, White Christmas, Happy Holiday, This Is the Army, Mr. Jones, and Theres No Business Like Show Business. His Broadway musical and 1942 film, This is the Army, Celine Dion recorded it as a tribute, making it no.1 on the charts after the September 11 attacks in 2001. In 2015, pianist and composer Hershey Felder began touring nationwide as a show, portraying Berlin. Composer George Gershwin called him the greatest songwriter that has ever lived, Berlin was born on May 11,1888, in Tolochin, Russian Empire. He was one of eight children of Moses and Lena Lipkin Beilin and his father, a cantor in a synagogue, uprooted the family to America, as did many other Jewish families in the late 19th century. In 1893 they settled in New York City, as of the 1900 census, the name Beilin had changed to Baline. By daylight the house was in ashes, as an adult, Berlin said he was unaware of being raised in abject poverty since he knew no other life. Tsar Alexander III of Russia and then Tsar Nicholas II, his son, had revived with utmost brutality the anti-Jewish pogroms, which created the spontaneous mass exodus to America. When they reached Ellis Island, Israel was put in a pen with his brother and his Yiddish-speaking family eventually settled on Cherry Street, a windowless cold-water basement flat in the Theater District of the Lower East Side. His father, unable to find work as a cantor in New York, took a job at a kosher meat market and gave Hebrew lessons on the side

11.
Jimmy Van Heusen
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Jimmy Van Heusen, also named James Van Heusen, was an American composer. He renamed himself at age 16, after the shirt makers Phillips-Van Heusen and his close friends called him Chet. Studying at Cazenovia Seminary and Syracuse University, he became friends with Jerry Arlen, with the elder Arlens help, Van Heusen wrote songs for the Cotton Club revue, including Harlem Hospitality. He then became a staff pianist for some of the Tin Pan Alley publishers, collaborating with lyricist Eddie DeLange, on songs such as Heaven Can Wait, So Help Me, and Darn That Dream, his work became more prolific, writing over 60 songs in 1940 alone. It was in 1940 that he teamed up with the lyricist Johnny Burke, Burke and Van Heusen moved to Hollywood and wrote for stage musicals and films throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song for Swinging on a Star. Their songs were featured in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court. He was also a pilot of some accomplishment, he worked, using his birth name, Van Heusen then teamed up with lyricist Sammy Cahn. Their three Academy Awards for Best Song were won for All the Way from The Joker Is Wild, High Hopes from A Hole in the Head, and Call Me Irresponsible from Papas Delicate Condition. Van Heusen wrote the music for five Broadway musicals, Swingin the Dream, Nellie Bly, Carnival in Flanders, Skyscraper and he became an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971. Van Heusen composed over 800 songs of which 50 songs became standards, Van Heusen songs are featured in over two hundred and twenty films. Although not considered handsome by conventional standards, Van Heusen was known to be quite a ladies man. James Kaplan in his book Frank The Voice wrote, He played piano beautifully, wrote gorgeously poignant songs about romance. he had a fat wallet, he flew his own plane, he never went home alone. Van Heusen was once described by Angie Dickinson, You would not pick him over Clark Gable any day, in his 20s he began to shave his head when he started losing his hair, a practice ahead of its time. He once said I would rather write songs than do anything else -- even fly. It was Van Heusen who rushed Sinatra to the hospital after Sinatra, in despair over the breakup of his marriage to Ava Gardner, however, this event was never mentioned by Van Heusen in any radio or print interviews given by him. Van Heusen married for the first time in 1969, at age 56 and he died in Rancho Mirage, California, in 1990 from complications following a stroke, at the age of 77. Van Heusen is buried near the Sinatra family in Desert Memorial Park, in Cathedral City and his grave marker reads Swinging On A Star. Van Heusen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song 14 times in 12 different years, and won four times, in 1944,1957,1959, and 1963

12.
Sammy Fain
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Sammy Fain, born Samuel E. Feinberg, was an American composer of popular music. In the 1920s and early 1930s, he was also a popular vocalist, Sammy Fain was born in New York City. In 1923, Fain appeared with Artie Dunn in a film directed by Lee De Forest filmed in DeForests Phonofilm sound-on-film process. In 1925, Fain left the Fain-Dunn act to devote himself to music, Fain was a self-taught pianist who played by ear. He began working as a staff pianist and composer for music publisher Jack Mills, later, Fain worked extensively in collaboration with Irving Kahal. Together they wrote classics such as Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella and You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me, another lyricist who collaborated with Fain was Lew Brown, with whom he wrote That Old Feeling. His Broadway credits also include Everybodys Welcome, Right This Way, Hellzapoppin, Flahooley, Ankles Aweigh, Christine, Fain also composed music for more than 30 films in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. He co-wrote both songs with Paul Francis Webster, another long-time collaborator, Fain wrote the second theme to the TV series Wagon Train in 1958, which was called Wagon Train. He also contributed to the scores for the Walt Disney animated films Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan. In 1972, he was inducted into The Songwriters Hall of Fame, Fain died in Los Angeles, California, and is interred at Cedar Park Cemetery, in Emerson, New Jersey. - musical - composer Rock N Roll, the First 5,000 Years - revue - featured songwriter for Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing Swing. - revue - featured songwriter for Ill Be Seeing You Sammy Fain discography, forum, and marketplace at Discogs Sammy Fain at the Internet Movie Database Sammy Fain at the Internet Broadway Database

13.
Sweet Leilani
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Sweet Leilani is a song featured in the 1937 film, Waikiki Wedding. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and Bing Crosbys record became one of the biggest hits of 1937, harry Owens wrote the song on October 20,1934 for his daughter Leilani, who was born the previous day. Leilani is a popular Hawaiian name, meaning garland of flowers. It also has a meaning, Small Hawaiian children were carried on their parents shoulders like a lei. Prior to Waikiki Wedding, the song had been recorded by Sol Hoʻopiʻi under the title Leilani as the B-side of Hawaiian Honeymoon, harry Owens and his Royal Hawaiians performed Sweet Leilani in the 1938 film Cocoanut Grove starring Fred MacMurray. Sweet Leilani became a standard of popular and Hawaiian music, easy listening, and to some extent jazz, and has occasionally been performed by country and rock artists

14.
Harold Arlen
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Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, including the classic Over the Rainbow, over the Rainbow was voted the twentieth centurys No.1 song by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. Arlen was born in Buffalo, New York, United States and his twin brother died the next day. He learned the piano as a youth and formed a band as a young man and he achieved some local success as a pianist and singer and moved to New York City in his early 20s. He worked as an accompanist in vaudeville, at this point, he changed his name to Harold Arlen. In 1929, Arlen composed his first well-known song, Get Happy, throughout the early and mid-1930s, Arlen and Koehler wrote shows for the Cotton Club, a popular Harlem night club, as well as for Broadway musicals and Hollywood films. Arlen and Koehlers partnership resulted in a number of hit songs, including the familiar standards Lets Fall in Love, Arlen continued to perform as a pianist and vocalist with some success, most notably on records with Leo Reismans society dance orchestra. Arlens compositions have always been popular with jazz musicians because of his facility at incorporating a blues feeling into the idiom of the conventional American popular song, in the mid-1930s, Arlen married, and spent increasing time in California, writing for movie musicals. It was at time that he began working with lyricist E. Y. In 1938, the team was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to compose songs for The Wizard of Oz, the most famous of these is the song Over the Rainbow for which they won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song. They also wrote Down with Love, Lydia the Tattooed Lady for Groucho Marx in At the Circus in 1939, Arlen was a longtime friend and former roommate of actor Ray Bolger, who starred in The Wizard of Oz. Arlen died of cancer at his Manhattan apartment, at the age of 81,1905 Arlen born in Buffalo, New York 1920 He formed his first professional band, Hyman Arlucks Snappy Trio. 1921 Against his parents wishes he left home,1923 With his new band – The Southbound Shufflers, performed on the Crystal Beach lake boat Canadiana during the summer of 1923. 1924 Performed at Lake Shore Manor during the summer of 1924,1924 Wrote his first song, collaborating with friend Hyman Cheiffetz to write My Gal, My Pal. Copyrighting the song as My Gal, Wont You Please Come Back to Me. and listed lyrics by Cheiffetz,1925 Makes his way to New York City with the group, The Buffalodians, with Arlen playing piano. 1926 Had first published song, collaborating with Dick George to compose Minor Gaff under the name Harold Arluck,1928 Chaim Arluck renames himself Harold Arlen, a name that combined his parents surnames. 1929 Landed a singing and acting role as Cokey Joe in the musical The Great Day,1929 Composed his first well known song – Get Happy – under the name Harold Arlen. 1929 Signed a yearlong song writing contract with the George and Arthur Piantadosi firm, 1930–1934 Wrote music for the Cotton Club

15.
Johnny Mercer
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John Herndon Johnny Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He was also the founder of Capitol Records and he is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others. From the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s, many of the songs Mercer wrote and he wrote the lyrics to more than fifteen hundred songs, including compositions for movies and Broadway shows. He received nineteen Academy Award nominations, and won four Best Original Song Oscars, Mercer was born in Savannah, Georgia. Lillians father was a merchant seaman who ran the Union blockade during the U. S. Civil War, Mercer was Georges fourth son, first by Lillian. Mercer was also a distant cousin of General George S. Patton, neither the General, nor Mercer himself, ever lived there. His mothers father was born in Lastovo, Croatia in 1834 to mother Ivana Cucevic, Mercer liked music as a small child and attributed his musical talent to his mother, who would sing sentimental ballads. Mercers father also sang, mostly old Scottish songs and his aunt told him he was humming music when he was six months old and later she took him to see minstrel and vaudeville shows where he heard “coon songs” and ragtime. The family’s summer home “Vernon View” was on the waters and Mercer’s long summers there among mossy trees, saltwater marshes. Mercer’s exposure to music was perhaps unique among the white songwriters of his generation. As a child, Mercer had African-American playmates and servants, and he listened to the fishermen and vendors about him and he was also attracted to black church services. Mercer later stated, “Songs always fascinated me more than anything and he had no formal musical training but was singing in a choir by six and at 11 or 12 he had memorized almost all of the songs he had heard and became curious about who wrote them. He once asked his brother who the best songwriter was, and his brother said Irving Berlin, despite Mercers early exposure to music, his talent was clearly in creating the words and singing, not in playing music, though early on he had hoped to become a composer. In addition to the lyrics that Mercer memorized, he was an avid reader and his attempts to play the trumpet and piano were not successful, and he never could read musical scores with any facility, relying instead on his own notation system. As a teenager in the Jazz Era, he was a product of his age and he hunted for records in the black section of Savannah and played such early black jazz greats as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstrong. His father owned the first car in town, and Mercer’s teenage social life was enhanced by his driving privilege, later, Mercer wrote a humorous song called Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry. Mercer attended exclusive Woodberry Forest boys prep school in Virginia until 1927, though not a top student, he was active in literary and poetry societies and as a humor writer for the school’s publications

16.
Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral
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Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral is a classic Irish-American song originally written in 1913 by composer James Royce Shannon for the Tin Pan Alley musical Shameen Dhu. The original recording of the song, by Chauncey Olcott, peaked at #1 on the music charts, the song was brought back to prominence by Bing Crosbys performance in 1944s Going My Way. Crosbys single sold over a million copies and peaked at #4 on the Billboard music charts Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral was written by lyricist, prior to the plays debut, singer Chauncey Olcott took it into the studio to record it on July 30,1913. Popular, his single peaked at #1 on the charts in December 1913. In 1944, Bing Crosby released a version of the song brought it to public attention again. First performed in the film Going My Way, it was released as a single that sold over a million copies. His first recording was made on July 7,1944 but mechanical difficulties with the led to it being recorded again on July 17,1945. It is this version appears on subsequent LPs and CDs. In 1945, the Crosby version of the song was featured in the film Nob Hill. In 1976, Richard Manuel and Van Morrison sang the song, as Tura Lura Lural, during The Bands farewell concert The Last Waltz. Come On, Eileen, a #1 U. K. chart single from the English band Dexys Midnight Runners, includes a chorus with the lines Too-Ra-Loo-Ra Too-Ra-Loo-Rye, the song appeared on their 1982 album titled Too-Rye-Ay. Steve Martin performed the song for comic effect in the film Housesitter and these are the original lyrics of the song as published in 1913 by Shannon through M. Witmark & Sons

17.
White Christmas (song)
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White Christmas is a 1942 Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the single of all time. Other versions of the song, along with Crosbys, have sold over 150 million copies, accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. He often stayed up all night writing—he told his secretary, Grab your pen, I just wrote the best song Ive ever written—heck, I just wrote the best song that anybodys ever written. At first, Crosby did not see anything special about the song and he just said I dont think we have any problems with that one, Irving. The song initially performed poorly and was overshadowed by Holiday Inns first hit song, Be Careful, by the end of October 1942, White Christmas topped the Your Hit Parade chart. It remained in position until well into the new year. A few weeks after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Crosby introduced “White Christmas” on a Christmas Day broadcast, the Armed Forces Network was flooded with requests for the song. The recording is noted for Crosbys whistling during the second chorus, in 1942 alone, Crosbys recording spent eleven weeks on top of the Billboard charts. The original version hit number one on the Harlem Hit Parade for three weeks, Crosbys first-ever appearance on the black-oriented chart. Re-released by Decca, the returned to the No.1 spot during the holiday seasons of 1945 and 1946. The recording became a perennial, reappearing annually on the pop chart twenty separate times before Billboard magazine created a distinct Christmas chart for seasonal releases. In Holiday Inn, the won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1942. In the film, Crosby sings White Christmas as a duet with actress Marjorie Reynolds and this now-familiar scene was not the moviemakers initial plan. In the script as originally conceived, Reynolds, not Crosby, the song would feature in another Crosby film, the 1954 musical White Christmas, which became the highest-grossing film of 1954. The version most often heard today on radio during the Christmas season is the 1947 re-recording, the 1942 master was damaged due to frequent use. Crosby re-recorded the track on March 19,1947, accompanied again by the Trotter Orchestra, the re-recording is recognizable by the addition of flutes and celesta in the beginning. Although Crosby dismissed his role in the success, saying later that a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully

18.
Hoagy Carmichael
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Howard Hoagland Hoagy Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader from Indiana. Carmichael composed several hundred songs, including fifty that achieved hit record status and he is best known for composing the music for Stardust, Georgia on My Mind, The Nearness of You, and Heart and Soul, four of the most-recorded American songs of all time. He also collaborated with lyricist Johnny Mercer on Skylark, Carmichaels Ole Buttermilk Sky was an Academy Award-nominee in 1946, In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening, with lyrics by Mercer, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1951. Carmichael also appeared as an actor and musical performer in fourteen motion pictures. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, on November 22,1899, Hoaglund Howard Hoagie Carmichael was the first child and only son of Howard Clyde and his parents named him after a circus troupe called the Hoaglands that had stayed at the Carmichael house during his mothers pregnancy. Hoagy had two sisters, Georgia and Joanne. Because of Howards unstable job history, the family moved frequently, Hoagy spent most of his early years in Bloomington and in Indianapolis, Indiana. Carmichaels mother taught him to sing and play the piano at an early age, the Carmichael family moved to Indianapolis in 1916, but Hoagy returned to Bloomington in 1919 to complete high school. The piano was the focus of Carmichaels after-school life, for inspiration he would listen to ragtime pianists Hank Wells and Hube Hanna. At eighteen, the small, wiry, and pale Carmichael helped supplement his family’s meager income by working in jobs in construction, at a bicycle-chain factory. The bleak time was partly spelled by four-handed piano duets with his mother and by his friendship with DuValle, Carmichael earned his first money as a musician playing at a fraternity dance in 1918, marking the beginning of his musical career. The death of Carmichaels three-year-old sister in 1918 affected him deeply and he later wrote My sister Joanne—the victim of poverty. We couldn’t afford a doctor or good attention, and that’s when I vowed I would never be broke again in my lifetime. Joanne may have died from influenza, which had swept the world that year, Carmichael attended Indiana University in Bloomington, where he earned a bachelors degree in 1925 and a law degree in 1926. He was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, and played the piano around Indiana and Ohio with his band, around 1922 Carmichael first met Leon Bix Beiderbecke, a cornetist and sometime pianist from Iowa. The two became friends and played music together, under Beiderbecke’s influence Carmichael began playing the cornet, but found that he didnt have the lips for the instrument and played it only briefly. He was also inspired by Beiderbeckes impressionistic and classical music ideas, the song became a jazz staple. Carmichaels other early compositions included Washboard Blues and Boneyard Shuffle

19.
Ray Charles
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Ray Charles Robinson, known professionally as Ray Charles, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and composer. Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called Brother Ray and he was often referred to as The Genius. Charles was blind from the age of seven and he pioneered the genre of soul music during the 1950s by combining blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles into the music he recorded for Atlantic Records. He also contributed to the integration of music, rhythm and blues and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records. While he was with ABC, Charles became one of the first black musicians to be granted artistic control by a record company. Charles cited Nat King Cole as an influence, but his music was also influenced by country, jazz, blues. In the late forties, he became friends with Quincy Jones and their friendship would last till the end of Charless life. Frank Sinatra called him the true genius in show business. In 2002, Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, Billy Joel observed, This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. Robinson was the son of Bailey Robinson, a laborer, at the time, she was a teenage orphan making a living as a sharecropper. They lived in Greenville, Florida, with Robinsons mother and his wife, the Robinson family had informally adopted Aretha, and she became known as Aretha Robinson. When she, scandalously, became pregnant by Bailey, she briefly left Greenville late in the summer of 1930 to be family members in Albany, Georgia. After that, mother and child returned to Greenville, and Aretha and he was deeply devoted to his mother and later recalled her perseverance, self-sufficiency, and pride as guiding lights in his life. His father abandoned the family, left Greenville, and took another wife elsewhere, in his early years, Charles showed a fondness about mechanical objects and would often watch his neighbors working on their cars and farm machinery. Charles and his mother were always welcome at the Red Wing Cafe, pitman would also care for Rays brother George, to take the burden off Aretha. George drowned in Arethas laundry tub when he was four years old, Charles started to lose his sight at the age of four or five, and was completely blind by the age of seven, apparently as a result of glaucoma. Destitute, uneducated and still mourning the loss of George, Aretha used her connections in the community to find a school that would accept a blind African-American student. Despite his initial protest, Charles attended school at the Florida School for the Deaf, Charles further developed his musical talent at school, and was taught to play the classical piano music of J. S

20.
Nick Perito
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Nicholas Perito was an American Hollywood composer and arranger and, for 40 years, the closest collaborator of singer Perry Como. Born in Denver, Peritos start in music was at an early age, both his uncle and brother encouraged his learning by gifts of sheet music, as he mastered one song, he would then be given a new one as an incentive. Perito started performing at parties at an age and received a scholarship to the Lamont School of Music. Being drafted in 1943 took him to New York, where he served as an Army medic in World War II, he played piano. The band musicians were given passes on weekends if there were no military engagements for them and were allowed to pick up jobs during this time, Perito remained in New York after World War II, entering the Juilliard School of Music and graduating from the college in 1949. Perito went home to Denver to marry his high school sweetheart, Judy Stone, the couple then settled in New York, where he worked as a songwriter, arranger, and accordion/piano session musician. Perito also had his own band that had a permanent spot at Jack Dempseys Broadway Restaurant and his first association with Perry Como came through Comos arranger, Ray Charles, in the early 1950s. Como had recorded a novelty song, Hoop-De-Doo, and Perito was hired to accompany him on accordion for television performances of the song and he became the musical director of United Artists Records in 1961. In 1963, Comos musical conductor, Mitchell Ayres, wanted to hire some new arrangers for Comos television show, when Ayres left to take a job as the conductor of The Hollywood Palace, Perito became the singers music director and conductor. Como credited Perito with the idea of making his 1987 album, Perito worked with Como through his last performance, his Irish Christmas special in 1994. When Mitchell Ayres was killed in a accident in 1969, former Como show producer Nick Vanoff. Peritos other credits include the Kennedy Center Honors, where he worked with Vanoff. He was also the director for the American Film Institute awards, as well as The Don Knotts Variety Show, Andy Williams. Perito wrote the music for the 1968 film, Dont Just Stand There, with Robert Wagner and Mary Tyler Moore. In the same year, Perito played the accordion on the solo vocal album of his friend and associate. Perito was also an arranger of background music for Muzak in the late 1960s. He became the director for Bob Hope in 1993, and worked with Hopes wife, Dolores. Perito played accordion for actor Paul Sorvinos PBS musical special in 1996, Perito, along with musicians Dick Grove and Allyn Ferguson, was a founder and partner in the Grove School of Music in Van Nuys, California

21.
You'll Never Walk Alone
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Youll Never Walk Alone is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel. It is reprised in the scene to encourage a graduation class of which Louise is a member. The song is sung at association football clubs around the world, where it is performed by a massed chorus of supporters on matchday. Christine Johnson, who created the role of Nettie Fowler, introduced the song in the original Broadway production, later in the show Jan Clayton, as Julie Jordan, reprised it, with the chorus joining in. In the film, it is first sung by Claramae Turner as Nettie, the weeping Julie Jordan tries to sing it but cannot, it is later reprised by Julie and those attending the graduation. Progressive rock group Pink Floyd took a recording by the Liverpool Kop choir, from 1964 through 2010, Jerry Lewis concluded the annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day MDA Telethon by singing the song. Italian-American tenor Sergio Franchi sang a notable version accompanied by the Welsh Mens Choir on the June 9,1968 telecast of The Ed Sullivan Show and he also covered this song in his 1964 RCA Victor album The Exciting Voice of Sergio Franchi. American singer and songwriter Barbra Streisand sang this song in an appearance at the close of the 2001 Emmy Awards. In 1990 at the Nelson Mandela, An International Tribute for a Free South Africa concert at Wembley Stadium London, Mandela turned to Adelaide Tambo who accompanied him onto the stage and asked what the song was. Renée Fleming sang the song at the Concert for America, which marked the first anniversary of 9/11, in the second season of American Horror Story, this song was recited as a poem. It has been the song of the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps song since 1954, challenged by the Rosemont Cavaliers singing Over the Rainbow in 1957, the corps responded with Youll Never Walk Alone, and it has been the official corps song ever since. Punk band Dropkick Murphys covered the song for their 2017 album 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory, as you may know, opiate overdoses are an epidemic in America now particularly in this area. Ive been to thirty wakes in two years, three week, one being my cousin, Al lost a brother in law. Its hit home close to us, I was leaving one of the wakes and this song came on and as I was listening to the lyrics it summed up exactly how I was feeling. Sad but knowing there is hope and you never have to be alone vocalist/bassist Ken Casey said in a December 2016 interview discussing the reason behind their version. Shanks was in awe of what he heard, as Liverpool fans sang You’ll Never Walk Alone at Wembley during the 1965 FA Cup Final win over Leeds, commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme referred to the song as “Liverpool’s signature tune”. Marsden told BBC Radio how, in the 1960s, the jockey at Anfield would play the top-ten commercial records in descending order, with the number one single played last. The song was adopted by Scottish team Celtic after a 1966 Cup Winners Cup semi-final against Liverpool at Anfield and it is now sung by Celtic fans prior to every home European tie

22.
Oscar Hammerstein II
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Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song, many of his songs are standard repertoire for singers and jazz musicians. Hammerstein was the lyricist and playwright in his partnerships, his collaborators wrote the music, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was born in New York City and his grandfather was the German theatre impresario Oscar Hammerstein I. His father was from a Jewish family, and his mother was the daughter of Scottish and English parents, although Hammersteins father managed the Victoria Theatre for his father and was a producer of vaudeville shows, he was opposed to his sons desire to participate in the arts. Hammerstein attended Columbia University and studied at Columbia Law School until 1917, as a student, he maintained high grades and engaged in numerous extracurricular activities. These included playing first base on the team, performing in the Varsity Show and becoming an active member of Pi Lambda Phi. When he was 19, and still a student at Columbia, his father died of Brights disease, June 10,1914, symptoms of which doctors originally attributed to scarlet fever. On the train trip to the funeral with his brother, he read the headlines in the New York Herald, the New York Times wrote, Hammerstein, the Barnum of Vaudeville, Dead at Forty. Two hours later, taps was sounded over Broadway, writes biographer Hugh Fordin, after his fathers death, he participated in his first play with the Varsity Show, entitled On Your Way. Throughout the rest of his career, Hammerstein wrote and performed in several Varsity Shows. After quitting law school to pursue theatre, Hammerstein began his first professional collaboration, with Herbert Stothart, Otto Harbach and he began as an apprentice and went on to form a 20-year collaboration with Harbach. Out of this came his first musical, Always You, for which he wrote the book. It opened on Broadway in 1920, in 1927, Kern and Hammerstein had their biggest hit, Show Boat, which is often revived and is still considered one of the masterpieces of the American musical theatre. Here we come to a new genre — the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. The play was the thing, and everything else was subservient to that play, came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity. Many years later, Hammersteins wife Dorothy bristled when she heard a remark that Jerome Kern had written Ol Man River, Jerome Kern wrote dum, dum, dum-dum. My husband wrote Ol Man River, other Kern-Hammerstein musicals include Sweet Adeline, Music in the Air, Three Sisters, and Very Warm for May